Dec 6, 2022 06:12 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 7, 2022 01:05 AM by C C.)
Coming to terms: The COVID lockdowns were all for naught
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/resto...for-naught
EXCERPTS: How different it feels this time around. Broadcasters are lustily cheering anti-lockdown protesters in China. Members of Congress offer unqualified support. President Joe Biden, although more guarded, is sympathetic.
No Western politician, as far as I can see, is insulting the protesters. They are not dismissed as selfish or sociopathic, nor as dupes of conspiracy theories. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) captured the mood: “To the people of China — we hear you and we stand with you as you fight for your freedom.”
Broadcasters and columnists who spent 2020 calling anti-lockdowners kooks and criminals are now uncomplicatedly applauding their Chinese counterparts. They see ordinary people standing up against an authoritarian government the anti-COVID policies of which were crushing liberty.
So, what changed? Perhaps pundits tell themselves that the disease is less virulent now, or that vaccination has altered the balance of risk, or that, in some other way, Beijing’s crackdown is less proportionate than those of 2020. But none of these explanations stacks up.
[...] In retrospect, I underestimated our servility, cowardice, and authoritarianism. We demanded, and got, two more lockdowns — three for some countries — despite all the evidence being in. It turned out that we were no less keen on the smack of firm government than anyone else.
At the start of 2020, looking at what was happening in Chinese cities, I thanked my lucky stars that I lived in a culture that elevated personal freedom over collectivism. In the event, it took only the tiniest tap to shatter that culture. Will we ever piece it back together? (MORE - missing details)
Both parties have abandoned the working class. We railroad workers are just the latest proof
https://www.newsweek.com/both-parties-ha...on-1764782
EXCERPT: So many of my colleagues feel like I do, that neither party really represents us. The Democrats may have been better represented in the vote to secure sick leave, but it was Democrat "Union Joe" Biden, who billed himself as the most pro-union president in American history, who sold us out to the rail carriers—carries who famously said that their record profits were the result of "capital investment and risk," not labor.
But while Republicans like to bill themselves as the new party of the working class, where are they when we need them? This was such a missed opportunity to gain the respect of railroad workers and the support of our whole families. Instead, the Republicans gave us the finger and, like the Democrats, voted not to support us but to side with the corporations... (MORE - missing details)
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Cynic's Corner: Progressives are capitalists -- they appropriate and manipulate leftist issues and agenda to advance their own self-interests in the context of their own "do-gooder" facade.
Meanwhile, the [true] left itself has indeed de-evolved from championing the proletariat back in the 19th and early 20th centuries to now being a paladin of fringe groups.
Part of this new enmity toward the working class derives from the latter's political turncoat status in Red States, as well as righteous crusaders attributing fascist values to the proles (that were arguably always there but ignored in the old days).
Another influence is a vital role of the working class as an invigorated stratum of taxpayers, necessary to fund social justice equity programs. IOW, the status of proles has shifted from being the object of the intellectual class's former pity (i.e., back when they were exploited by industrial moguls) to now being levied servants or drudges who financially support socialist "fairness" with respect to the left's fragile fringe patrons who are oppressed, unemployed, emotionally scarred, etc.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/resto...for-naught
EXCERPTS: How different it feels this time around. Broadcasters are lustily cheering anti-lockdown protesters in China. Members of Congress offer unqualified support. President Joe Biden, although more guarded, is sympathetic.
No Western politician, as far as I can see, is insulting the protesters. They are not dismissed as selfish or sociopathic, nor as dupes of conspiracy theories. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) captured the mood: “To the people of China — we hear you and we stand with you as you fight for your freedom.”
Broadcasters and columnists who spent 2020 calling anti-lockdowners kooks and criminals are now uncomplicatedly applauding their Chinese counterparts. They see ordinary people standing up against an authoritarian government the anti-COVID policies of which were crushing liberty.
So, what changed? Perhaps pundits tell themselves that the disease is less virulent now, or that vaccination has altered the balance of risk, or that, in some other way, Beijing’s crackdown is less proportionate than those of 2020. But none of these explanations stacks up.
[...] In retrospect, I underestimated our servility, cowardice, and authoritarianism. We demanded, and got, two more lockdowns — three for some countries — despite all the evidence being in. It turned out that we were no less keen on the smack of firm government than anyone else.
At the start of 2020, looking at what was happening in Chinese cities, I thanked my lucky stars that I lived in a culture that elevated personal freedom over collectivism. In the event, it took only the tiniest tap to shatter that culture. Will we ever piece it back together? (MORE - missing details)
Both parties have abandoned the working class. We railroad workers are just the latest proof
https://www.newsweek.com/both-parties-ha...on-1764782
EXCERPT: So many of my colleagues feel like I do, that neither party really represents us. The Democrats may have been better represented in the vote to secure sick leave, but it was Democrat "Union Joe" Biden, who billed himself as the most pro-union president in American history, who sold us out to the rail carriers—carries who famously said that their record profits were the result of "capital investment and risk," not labor.
But while Republicans like to bill themselves as the new party of the working class, where are they when we need them? This was such a missed opportunity to gain the respect of railroad workers and the support of our whole families. Instead, the Republicans gave us the finger and, like the Democrats, voted not to support us but to side with the corporations... (MORE - missing details)
- - - - - - -
Cynic's Corner: Progressives are capitalists -- they appropriate and manipulate leftist issues and agenda to advance their own self-interests in the context of their own "do-gooder" facade.
Meanwhile, the [true] left itself has indeed de-evolved from championing the proletariat back in the 19th and early 20th centuries to now being a paladin of fringe groups.
Part of this new enmity toward the working class derives from the latter's political turncoat status in Red States, as well as righteous crusaders attributing fascist values to the proles (that were arguably always there but ignored in the old days).
Another influence is a vital role of the working class as an invigorated stratum of taxpayers, necessary to fund social justice equity programs. IOW, the status of proles has shifted from being the object of the intellectual class's former pity (i.e., back when they were exploited by industrial moguls) to now being levied servants or drudges who financially support socialist "fairness" with respect to the left's fragile fringe patrons who are oppressed, unemployed, emotionally scarred, etc.